[CIB-173RDABN]

Six billion dollars and they can not get it right.

First off, not everyone needs everything.

Design a basic OS.

Then give people the option to add the extra features they want or need.

Perhaps then the OS will not take up every bit of space in our computers and run slower then the previuos version.

I am not a "power user". I only need a basic OS. It irrates the hell out of me that it can take several minutes from the time I turn on my computer before it is ready for me to start using it (and do get me started on the several minute shut down which requires me to stand around and wait since every so often a file will not close and I have to close it manually.)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Well, graphics-heavy OS requires a lot of man-hours, and its components were probably outsourced to all over the world.

Besides, their OS is built on layers of older OS codes which were patched and repatched again. It all make OS grow fast in size.

[msgt]

First off, not everyone needs everything.
Design a basic OS.
Then give people the option to add the extra features they want or need.

They did. It's called Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Pro, Ultimate. Buy whichever one you want. You can also turn off Aero, turn off UAC, turn off the sidebar, and you've pretty much gone back to XP.

[an amused spectator]

I am not a "power user". I only need a basic OS. It irrates the hell out of me that it can take several minutes from the time I turn on my computer before it is ready for me to start using it (and do get me started on the several minute shut down which requires me to stand around and wait since every so often a file will not close and I have to close it manually.)

Basic users shouldn't have to have their life sucked up by a box that they bought to make their life easier.

I'm a computer professional, and my main box has only 256Mb of RAM, with a PIII 933MHz processor.

Its speed leaves most people's newer boxes with 4 and 8 times the RAM (and 2 to 3 times the processor speed) in the dust.

45 seconds up and down, that's as much time standing around as I'll accept.

[bajabaja]

“I am not a “power user”. I only need a basic OS. It irrates the hell out of me that it can take several minutes from the time I turn on my computer before it is ready for me to start using it (and do get me started on the several minute shut down which requires me to stand around and wait since every so often a file will not close and I have to close it manually.)”

Take a look at some of the linux distributions. They are free and some are testable from a cd without disturbing your MS operating system. In the end you will save time and hair.